On Lawmakers’ Plates: COVID Testing, Leadership Elections And A Side Of Lame Duck
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently announced the addition of up to 2,000 weekly COVID-19 tests for current members and staff.
NPR:
House Gets New Coronavirus Testing As Members Prepare For Next Congress
The House of Representatives will return Monday to a post-election session with a few major but controversial items to address, including leadership elections, how to deal with more coronavirus relief and a must-pass spending bill. To help, they'll have a new, widespread testing program to track the coronavirus among members, staffers and workers. The plan is a first for any chamber of Congress eight months into the pandemic, and it comes as cases are spiking across the country and in Washington, D.C. (Grisales, 11/16)
The Hill:
Progressive House Democrats To Host Health Care Strategy Session
Three members of the House's growing progressive wing will attend a strategy session Wednesday for left-leaning health care activists aimed at defining priorities under President-elect Joe Biden's administration. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Katie Porter (D-Calif.) will join the Center for Health and Democracy's Wendell Potter to "chart the path forward on transforming our broken health care system," according to a tweet from Potter. (Bowden, 11/15)
Also —
Politico:
Health Care Vs. 'Radical Leftists': Parties Re-Running 2020 Playbooks In Georgia Runoffs
Republicans want to save Georgians from socialism. Democrats want to save their health care and flip the Senate. The dueling messages last week defined the kickoff of the two runoff elections in Georgia that will decide control of the Senate in January. Win both races, and Democrats have a 50-50 Senate with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris breaking ties. Lose both, and Democrats are relegated once again to the minority, with a Republican Senate standing in the way of President-elect Joe Biden’s ambitious agenda. (Arkin, 11/15)
The Washington Post:
With Pandemic Raging, Republicans Say Election Results Validate Their Approach
The victories in state and local races have allowed GOP leaders to claim a mandate for their let-it-be approach to pandemic management, with pleas for “personal responsibility” substituting government intervention. As hospitals fill and deaths climb, it’s a philosophy that public health experts warn could have disastrous consequences this winter. (Witte, 11/15)
